Celestial Storm: Golden Dawn

Chapter Four: Mages of the Guild

Flame marched up to the door and kicked it open. Now that I was closer, I could see many dents in the door. From the look of it, the dents were from where Flame had kicked the door open on previous occasions.

"I'M BACK!" he roared.

"Yeah!" Fryn squeaked enthusiastically.

The interior looked well used. The granite floor appeared to have been recently cleaned, but the granite had many chips in it as though something hard struck the floor multiple times. The room was like a square and a rectangle put together in shape. The architecture seemed to be a blend of dwarven and elfin architecture with some human architecture thrown in. The walls had been painted with scenes of forests, rivers, mountains and caves. The paintings seemed to have withstood of splattering of many rounds of food and drink. The furniture seemed to have been put back together many times. I thought I saw some glue that was still drying on the nearest chair. Many lamps hung from the rafters on iron or copper hangers. There were several couches and cushions that were worn. A newer looking couch appeared to have a stain on it from spilled wine. Two dark-haired women and a rather grubby dwarf were taking up that couch. They appeared to have passed out for multiple bottles lay around the couch. A group of dwarves were playing a card game of some sort. A woman that looked like an elf but with greenish skin studied a map with a burly man. A group of young men were talking happily in a corner while a little girl idly arranged bottle caps and corks. A half-elf with a shadow of a beard and strawberry blond hair was carving a piece of bone. An elf with pale blond hair sat at the bar, which was made of granite, apparently studying the contents of a small vial.

One of the dark haired women sat up abruptly when Flame yelled and cried, "Flame, put out the coals! They're boiling over." She passed out again after uttering this nonsensical statement. The green-skinned women yanked a knife from her belt then relaxed again. The elf at the bar nearly dropped his vial. He muttered something that sounded like "young hoodlums at it again." The dwarves playing cards merely grunted hellos to Flame. One of the young men waved happily to Flame. The half-elf jumped slightly and started calling Flame a lot of obscenities. However, Flame's attention was focused on a small man in the center of the group of youths.

"Squirrely, you lying dirt-bag!" Flame shouted, "You told me that the mission would be easy!"

He ran over and drop-kicked the man called Squirrely. The other men jumped away from the scene of the fight. The little girl ducked as though she was accustomed to Flame drop kicking people.

"Ah! You're fighting?!" I cried.

"Yeah! Beat him up, Flame!" Fryn cheered.

"I can't believe that you're vouching for him," I said.

I jumped as someone else kicked the door open.

"Where's Flame?" the newcomer shouted.

It didn't take the man long to spot Flame.

"The mission description was simple! It should have been easy!" Squirrely shouted at Flame.

"Bullshit! You set me up!" Flame shouted. "It took me two weeks to find the stupid cultists!"

"Flame! You destroyed my chemistry set! You owe me a new one!" the newcomer yelled.

"It's not my fault that you leave your crap lying around where anyone can step on it," Flame hollered at the newcomer.

"Since when does my room count as open space?" the newcomer retorted.

"Stop kicking the damn door open!" the half-elf shouted.